Stan Van Gundy still is building the Detroit Pistons' staff.AP File Photo

AUBURN HILLS -- The Detroit Pistons couldn't shoot straight last season and while personnel has to change to improve that glaring shortcoming, Stan Van Gundy voiced a willingness Wednesday to try a specialized shooting coach.

That list included several of the league's best-shooting teams, but not the Pistons, who ranked 29th in 3-point percentage and 30th in free-throw percentage.

It did include the Charlotte Bobcats, who weren't one of the best-shooting teams, but hired Mark Price after the one-time shooting ace spent the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season as Van Gundy's shooting coach in Orlando.

That relationship didn't pay off as it might have, Van Gundy said, because no monitored offseason workouts, a minimal training camp, and a 66-game schedule in a four-month season undermined the principle.

But with the Pistons' desperate need to shoot better, their new president of basketball operations and head coach said hiring a specialized shooting coach is under consideration.

"We had a shooting coach who didn't have a chance to shoot with anybody," Van Gundy said. "Until Mark, I had never had one. But I'm looking at it and I'm thinking maybe somebody like that.

"It's been structured in a lot of ways in different organizations, but it's certainly something that we at least have to think about, and we'll go from there. I think the best way to improve your shooting is to put more shooters on your roster. But I do think a shooting coach can help."

Van Gundy last week announced three full assistant coaches, Brendan Malone, Bob Beyer and Charles Klask.

The Pistons let go four staffers at the same time, including Rasheed Wallace, leaving no player development coaches and an advance-scout opening. It will take at least three new hirees to fill all the jobs.

The assumption that one of those must be a big-man coach is not necessarily accurate, Van Gundy said.

Malone, the former Chuck Daly assistant during the "Bad Boys" Pistons era, has a strong history with big men, and not just obvious ones like Bill Laimbeer and Dwight Howard.

Van Gundy recalled Malone's work with a young Marcin Gortat, now of the Washington Wizards, who was drafted 57th overall by Orlando in 2005.

Gortat played for the Magic in two summer leagues, returning to play in Germany each year, before staying in the U.S. -- and the Magic front office wasn't unanimous, even then, on signing him, Van Gundy said.

Gortat played most of that 2007-08 season in the NBA Development League before playing six games with the Magic.

Malone took on Gortat as a personal project, drilling him day after day during the offseason, and the center started to blossom his second year, when he played 63 games.

Gortat since has developed into a solid big man projected to earn an annual salary in the $9-10 million range when he hits free agency this summer.

"I think that Marcin Gortat would tell you that he wouldn't be nearly where he is right now without Brendan Malone and his coaching," Van Gundy said.